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The Prophet 



AND 



OTHER POEMS 



BY 



/ 



ISAAC R. BAXLEY 



AUTHOR OF THE TEMPLE OF ALANTHUR 




NEW YORK AND LONDON 

G. p. PUTNAM'S SONS 

1888 



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COPYRIGHT BY 

ISAAC R. BAXLEY 

1888 



Press of 

G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

The Prophet i 

The Sowers 6 

Love is a Gem 7 

The Manikin 8 

Time 19 

Beyond 20 

Outlook 21 

Justine 22 

Sunset 26 

Unchanged 28 

Absence 30 

Never 31 

Eros 32 

Plato 34 

Distant 35 

The Last Songs 36 

Rush on, Rush on with Hasty Feet ... 42 

Comparison 43 

Waiting 44 

Desire 45 

Achievement 46 

The Journey 47 

Redeemed 48 

Return 50 

iii 



IV CONTENTS. 

The Women 51 

Revival 52 

Belief 53 

Slavery 54 

Predestination 56 

The Kiss 57 

Question 58 

Attainment 60 

Apparition 62 

Application 63 

Transfer 64 

Acquisition 65 

Contact 66 

Assemblage 67 

Realization 68 

Expression 69 

Futurity 70 

Speech 71 

Release 73 

The Voice 74 





THE PROPHET. 



'X'HE prophecy must be beyond the ears — 
* If otherwise, wherein attain we growth ? 
There are forerunners : the aftercomers know 
A-verity their message : jostling proclaim 
With brazen tongues the truth arrived from far. 
But how the Prophet and his shaking heads, 
Wherewith shall solace his negation wide ? 
The harmony which comes by death to him 
Is useless as a balsam : — if on high 
Ring out his sudden words because enforced 
By the tumultuous beating of his powers, 
When back their echoes drift to him again, 
He, broken in the throng, silently yields 
Their reputation to the weird, rude winds — 
The airs men breathe not — fitted for night and 

waste. 
*T is the dark curse of vision cast afar 
To fail thro' noisome vapors rising near. 
Prophet and man live side by side in time : 
Where Reason reaches raises the head of man — 
The proud, rude Prophet, driven on the wings 
Of blasts impalpable, utters the cries, 
I 



2 THE PROrnET. 

That screaming come from some unreasoned 

source — 
Himself a hearer in his own discourse. 
He with the stricken stands in awe, untaught 
The distant course or slow unrolling way — 
The time or yet exact fulfilment of 
His deprecation or the blind reward. 
Two powers upon his soul the Prophet bows 
The mightier in submission, daring fronts 
Thick whirling darts held in the hands of men — 
Staying aloft a sword he only sees. 

It is not what we know needs to be told — 
When the new cry comes to us we stand a-stop — 
Yet he who cries, in ferment of the need, 
Desperate outstretches to a halting throng. 
Deep in enigma are prophetic lines — 
Far from the day, leading the learner up — 
'T is unexpected they should be scanned at once. 
But in the fever he who calls, athrob 
With the great impulse of another Law, 
Feels failure in delay and discontent. 
Time — time, reward, defeat, and want, 
Progress and guessing, death, glory, and crime, 
Draw into one the Prophet and the crowd. 
All is not bitterness : — some rise enrobed 
With hues of happiness and joyful themes — 
Some prophesy the Gift and some the Law. 
Hoary with song, or bursting youth afresh, 
Each is a Prophet and does wisely plot 
A long distinction mixed in his destined speech. 
Ye, the great movers in the rainbow cloud, 
Who sail the dappled currents of delight 



THE PROPHET. 3 

Over abysmal plainness of the hours — 
Whirled in your gilded visions far away 
From hideous nearness of material things — 
With palette dyed in day's essential spells — 
And ye who purify the changeless limbs 
Of beauty from the sweet unblushing stone — 
Who sit await with the flush dawn to break 
At Eastern gates, and let the glory in 
Upon your faces with the waiting light — 
What are ye but our Prophets ? Never all 
Wide-eyed, astound, and wild, but having some 
That blink o' the vision which produces 
Brighter things. 

To dwell upon the future sinks to-day's 

Material, worldly things into the past. 

But men in journey, weary with the loads 

They gather, bend their laden shoulders down. 

Lo, the poor Prophet, gazing up and on, 

Slippeth the things desirable away — 

Unconscious of their loss and his despoil. 

Who looks afar stumbles betimes at home — 

The nudge and titter greet a careless use — 

The banterer and the despoiler wait 

On Inspiration and her erring child 

With crafty purpose and a sure success. 

Where are they — where their gains hideously won ? 

Blind in the brightness of his consuming rays 

The plundered Prophet perishes in pain. 

All they divide except his soul — alone 

By that the comers after judge and cherish. 

Humanity, in light appeasement for 

Its blood of martyrs, adventitiously 



4 THE PROPHET, 

Writes in the catalogue all pain and woe 
For things regrettable, but not of sum 
And substance in posterity's account. 
Perchance, — perchance the horrid friction of 
Despair and agony should be to them 
But as the burnisher to virtues fine : 
But have a care that we run as the oil — 
A polish where some harsher worked before. 

Who be our Prophets ? Are they daintily 
Set on the summit of some fashion fine ? 
Does the world run long-grooved in a success ? 
Up from the opposing side of each conceit 
Rises the Prophet, weird, sad-eyed, alone. 
In the gay train some prophesy and cry : 
" He is a devil — wild and maniac — 
We are the guides did bring the people on ! " 

O single-handed, stern and doomed to death — 
O falling heart and arms upraised in air — 
O messenger with message much too great — 
'T is but the echo shall achieve the work ! 

" Give us a Teacher flowing in the robes 

Of use and custom — clad in elegance 

Of daily profit — and deliver us 

Axioms constructed to the things that are ! " 

O outcast, needless, powerless, strange, unknown- 
Foredoomed to failure and the bitter lip — 
Hurled in the invisible hands of Force Divine 
Against the seen and dreadful front of men ! 
How long mortality shall last, how long 



THE PROPHET, 5 

Serve visual as the targe of ridicule, 

How long the trumpet serve the Sounding Voice, 

He who enduring cries dares not enquire. 

Struck from the essential Sun of things, is housed 
A spark, controlling in the Prophet's breast : 
Feeding within — consuming all the frail 
Opposing faculties the flame grows fierce. 
Like minions to its power, speech, purpose, yield 
Intent, time, action, loss, neglect, disdain. 
All make in him a destined course and end. 

Roll on, O tide, swift with thy numerous prows, 
The wind of custom blows on steady sails ; 
He who, returning from onward far the stream. 
Hails, as an avalanche, the fleeting freight 
Must perish, but his voice blows down the gale. 
The long-gone, dead, and proven Prophets rise 
Figures of envy, and the world does sigh 
For chance to fast as they did — and forego. 
Tongues of the world are changed, lo, other cries 
Come from her Prophets now and go unheard. 

There is a time the world shall cry aloud : 
There is a time the light shall enter in : 
There is a time for comprehension and 
Fulfilment of the action unto faith : 
The time shall be, as Prophets spread afar, 
Men stand upon the pinnacles to catch 
Sounds of the unseen Voice, accredited 
With judgment for the works and ways of men. 
Hear ye — train to the murmurs indistinct 
From the far sounds starting in other airs ! 




THE SOWERS. 



\ 171-10 knows ? The world is wide and God did 
^ ^ sow 
Blessings and sorrows. With daily suns the Sowers 
Come a-scattering : over all the dust 
Is sifted, and turmoil, the struggle and 
The stamp of agony tear up the ground. 
Fine from the winnowing hands some blossoms 

fall 
As seedlings which the wind bears wide and long. 

To me the Sowers came and lightly swept 
Adown the hills their stores with open hand : 
Singing the Sowers went — and O the day ! 

To me the Sowers came, and heavy-eyed 

Wept as they humbly passed, and halting threw. 

With shadowy hands, such seeds — so soon — so soon. 

Pass and repass — O Sowers, come again ! 
I till the earth in shadow, storm, or sun, 
Upon the hills my sowing falls, and I 
Walk blindly ui)ward — Sowers come again ! 
6 




LOVE IS A GEM. 



LOVE is a gem ; the world is night around — 
Gloom, shadow, darkness, curtain the changing 
fires. 
Doubt hangs askance, and Fear her mantle trails 
Averted, wayward, blinding the light with dust. 
Obscurely in the clouds Love gathers light ; 
Thickly and thin the vapors drift and go ; 
Love glittering dies — revives, and sweetly shines — 
Love is a gem benighted in the world. 

Day rides apace, cleaving the clouds and air ; 
Darkness rolls wide his broadening trail beyond ; 
Day looks ahead — his flaming eyes discern 
Love in the darkness, burning weak and low ; 
Day rides apace, searching the feeble gem ; 
Love looks and glitters — the Day bends down to 

take 
Love onward ; — Day pursues, and far in flight 
Attains delight — Love gathers fire and flame. 

Love in the darkness shines — shines weak and low ; 
Love in the light gathers the flame and fire : 
Love is a gem benighted in the world ; 
Love is the gem flaming the first in light. 
7 



«: 




THE MANIKIN. 



AN ELFIN, DRUMMING UPON A ROSE-LEAF. 



T 



AP — tap — tap, 

The tale is beginning 

With some one gone sinning, 
Rap — rap — rap. 



A SEXLESS IMP, IN SALTATIONS AND SINGING. 

To sin is good, for sin is change. 
And change can cheat satiety : 

Sameness all pleasure doth estrange, 
Sin brings some sweet variety. 

Nor man nor maid am I, and pine 
For sin and sorrow as a prize : 

Nor man nor maid my arms confine — 
With neither do I sate mine eyes. 

No passion lures me in a maid, 
No heat is ravished in desire ; 

No virtue have I to degrade, 
No fuel fills my phantom fire. 

8 



THE MANIKIN. g 

Sexless am I : — sin if ye may, 
Be quick in sin — envious I fly — 

Spoiler of pleasures and of play 
Exempted from such souls as I. 

ELFIN. 

Ho, ho, my Imp, my jealous chum, 
The sight of pleasure maddens thee ? 

T rattle fast my rosy drum. 
Concordant to such ecstasy. 

No flower grows in the garden row 
Too pure to deck a bed of joy : 

We Elves with moonlit lanterns go 
A constant fortnight in employ — 

Searching the gardens, searching dells 
For downy petals, rare perfumes. 

Wherewith to brew the fragrant spells 
We chant for fruit of maiden wombs. 

We pray for maids, but older sin 

We laugh and tease with ceaseless care ; 

Ha ! ha ! a se'nnight did we spin 
Round the lean ankles of a pair — 

Hoary and eld, catching at chance 
Of pleasure with a prospect vain ; 

Ho ! ho ! delighted did we dance 
And skip the feathered counterpane ! 

AN AGED WITCH, WITH FAGGOTS. 

Scat ! ye vermin, age defying. 
Age contemning, rabble brood ; 



10 THE MANIKIN. 

Think ye there 's no pleasure lying 

But below the creamy-hued 
Mixing of milk and youngish blood ? 

Nay, little ones, I tell you surely 
Of youth no pleasure *s understood. 

Young sinners do repent demurely, 
With us no sorrow spoils the good : 
We gloat on joy as coming — thoroughly 

Ease our souls of all regret : 
Yes we, the hoary, know most truly 

How to enjoy all we get. 

[She piles some stones under a caldron, and, placing the 
faggots, fires them.] 

SEXLESS IMP. 

Young or old 't is never changing, 

No morrow's mine of hope nor play, 
No Cupid 's in the stars arranging 

With ecstasy the peeping day. 
No garland has the sun, and dread 

Uprises as myself I see. 
The piercing spirits overhead 

Watch me, forlorn, exultingly. 
I cannot love as men do love. 

Nor am exempted — spirit wise ; 
Desire walks with me where I move, 

No virtue from me, dangerous, flies. 
O steep me thickly in thy smoke 

Of caldron ; let the gloomy blaze 
Wrap me obscurely in its cloak — 

Forgetfulness my debt defrays. 



THE MANIKIN, II 

WITCH. 

Begone, begone, another grows ; 

My art and I our pleasure slake ; 
Behold his blooming limbs disclose ; 

Witness his white and marvellous shape : 
Fairer than dawn, more fair is night 

With thee companion, and the spell 
Distilled to tickle thy delight — 

To fill with love Life's hidden cell. 

[A youth of great beauty in form slowly discloses from the 
smoke, standing blindfold. The Witch leads him by the hand 
into a wood, and they disappear.] 



ELFIN. 

So— SO — merry and sinning. 

Round is the world, and roundly it goes ; 
Even the lover the lovely is winning. 

Beauty is blessing, misshapen are woes. 

So — so — greatly desiring 

The eyes of the old ones follow the young ; 
Money that 's hoarded is spent in acquiring 

Dainties that truly not thither belong. 

So — so — deep Melancholy 

Hobbles with Age, but ever anew 

Springs on the byways every folly 
Youth can devise, invent and pursue. 

[Morning in the wood : a Maiden pursuing a watercourse 
therein.] 



12 THE MANIKm. 

MAIDEN. 

Flower and zephyr, meadow mild, 

Lightest air, and lightest eye 
In fancy hither are beguiled, 

Drifting about deliciously : 
For oh, the essence and the air 

Are mixing in such company 
No sense may sift them to declare 

A separate identity. 
Mayhap my eyes are overkind, 

Or that some beauty lieth hid. 
Surely the sweetly freighted wind 

Draws gently down a slumbrous lid. 
Is sleep so near, always beside 

The far-ofif fountains of the sky, 
Dripping the potion of his tide 

As their blue courses downward fly? 
Sleep, sleep the flowers ; betimes must Love, 

The watchful darling, drowsily 
O'erlook a maid, for here I rove 

Exempt, unbound, in liberty. 

[She suddenly comes upon the Witch and her beautiful Com- 
panion asleep. The Maiden sees not the dark body of the 
Witch upon the ground ; her attention is fixed upon the blind- 
fold Youth, whom she awakens by her voice, while the Aged 
One sleeps on.] 

YOUTH. 

Sleeping I feel and waking hear 
Nearness of Beauty and her tone ; 

These are the seconds ; O let appear 
The eyes of Beauty on my own ! 



THE MANIKIN. 



n 



Subservient all sweetness is, 
All lesser — finite — incomplete, 

Incomparable is every bliss 

To Beauty's glances darting fleet. 

Why, other, should I hold desire 

For ever tenant to my heart ? 
Love hath some emblem floating higher 

On summits where I bear no part. 

for the pity, deed of grace. 
Unsealing sightless eyes that turn 

For ever, ever, out in space. 

Where never light and brightness burn ! 

MAIDEN, STARTLED. 

'T is Love himself, the dear blind god, 
Convicts my plaining, and appears : 

1 witless walked, nor understood. 
Passing the path his footprint bears. 

Am I a maid, and shall I dare 

Unloosen eyes so full of fire ? 
Does wisdom lay the lightning bare, 

Or courage scourge a tempest higher ? 
Already leaping in my veins 

The malady, oft sung, doth run ; 
Unbound he looks — me he disdains — 

Refusing where he but begun. 

YOUTH. 

Nay linger not — nay, nay, 
Nor ponder, nor delay ; 



14 THE MANIKIN. 

Every shadow hath a sun, 
I know my darkness waiteth one : 
My heart is up, my blood is new, 
As flax and fire so darting thro' 
My anxious eyes the sun shall wear 
Singly the aspect thou dost bear. 

MAIDEN. 

Nay, I dare not, Love, unbind 
Knots I ne'er again could wind : 
Nay, I dare not. Love, undo 
Those cloudy curtains from the blue : 
Nay, I dare not. Love, display 
This trembling countenance to day. 

YOUTH. 

Swear then, by Darkness thou wilt be 
Constant to mine obscurity. 

MAIDEN. 

Constant to thee as fire and flame ; 

Constant as waves to windy seas ; 
Constant as daily suns remain 

Heirs to their desert boundaries : 
More constant than to drowsy theme 

Are summer bees, and more than dips 
The constant swallow in the stream — 

More than the honey to thy lips. 

YOUTH. 

There is no night then ; never say 
A night was night till dawn of day. 



THE MANIKIN. 1 5 

Nor ways are dark if constantly 
Unvarying shades keep company. 
We know not better from the best : 

We speak and tell but what we know : 
No sonnet rings that keeps compressed 

More sweetness than blind ways I go. 

WITCH, AWAKENING. 

O untrusty ! O ye hateful ! 

Ever filching from the old : 
Deeds of youth are ever fateful ; 

Death rewards the overbold. 
Creature to creator yieldeth, 

Enemy is overcome : 
Ne'er to purpose Terror pleadeth ; 

Mercy here is little done. 
Rage and Pleasure brew the potion 

I distil for guerdon thine. 
Do ruby hearts keep all emotion ? 

Nay, a stronger faith is mine. 

[The Youth and the Maiden stand immovable in terror, 
while the Aged One, suddenly surrounded by a company of 
Imps and Wry-Devils, gives direction to the band.] 

WITCH. 

Seize the loving ! seize the daring ! 

Would ye an old grandam whet ? 
Must the aged go a-sharing 

Pleasures their old toils beget ? 
Must the aged, ever ready, 

Laboring draw their feet aside 
That the rapid, sweet, unsteady 

Dance of youth may onward glide ? 



1 6 THE MANIKIN, 

Nay, my loving, nay, my daring, 

Age is nurse to many a mood ; 
Passion's, long itself outwearing. 

Color lingers in the blood. 
Heady youth makes hasty ending ; 

Fast the maid with brambles wind : 
Hasten, minions, to my sending; 

His over anxious eyes unbind ! 
Imp and devil madly hale him 

To my bony, open arms ! 
O tender, thorny maid, bewail him. 

Sufferer in my aged charms ! 
Quick, ye vermin, something stirs me. 

Really passion leaps anew ; 
See ! the glorious martyr nears me. 

Bubbles boil my fancy thro' ! 

VOICES OF INTERPOSING SPIRITS UPON THE WIND. 

Something not in mortal vision 

Weighs the forces of the world ; 
Good and evil, in division. 

Circling unevenly are whirled : 
Builders to the better faster 

Find the rampart and the stone : 
He who plotteth dark disaster 

Must with heavier toil atone. 
He who formeth perfect creature 

Other guardian gives his child 
Thou lusty, lewd, unhallowed feature. 

With the parent blood defiled. 
She the milky limbs disclosed 

Of an aimless, happy Youth, 



THE MANIKIN. 17 

We, Good Spirits, interposed 

By the stronger laws of Truth ! 
We adjust in sweet arrangement 

Works another power began. 
Final issues are estrangement 

From the promise of their plan. 
Happy chance and happy meeting 

Intangible shall not be made ; 
Joy is lasting, sorrow 's fleeting. 

Futures with gladness are arrayed. 
Out to weary habitations 

Drive the Witch and ghostly crew ; 
Sweetly sound our invitations — 

Them to Youth and Maid renew. 
Sing of Beauty to Perfection 

Linked, adapted, silver-chained, 
Travelling Fortune's sweet direction, 

By no evil shade detained. 
Sing of happy goal and issue — 

Termination unforeseen — 
Sing the broken, idle tissue, 

Impotent, of Witch's spleen. 

MAIDEN. 

Tho' I did not. Love, undo 
Those fleecy burdens from the blue ; 
Tho' I did not. Love, unbind 
The lashes of thine eyelids blind ; 
Tho' I dared not. Love, display 
My helpless heart to thee and day ; 
Yet I journey by thy side — 
The morn a Maid — to-night a Bride. 



THE MANIKIN, 
SPIRITS UPON THE WIND. 

Passed and passing, still remaineth 

Goodly Powers and Voices clear 
Little waxeth less or waneth 

Light for happy atmosphere : 
Seldom broken or disabled 

Hang the wings of Angels good : 
Ever rising goes the fabled 

Echo of some beatitude : 
Utmost ether constant lighting, 

Flashing rays continuing speed ; 
Betimes by farthest spaces fighting 

Champions procure a daily need. 





TIME. 



T^HE old, old Torturer shakes his beard, and 
•'■ strains 

With sinewy hands his instruments of pain : 
No darkness and no sleep of shadowy night 
Hang on the orbit of his terrible gaze : 
In all the earth but one unlidded eye 
Survives in sun and silence, and sustains. 
With every morn his scavengers of night 
Thrust on his rack the quivering limbs of babes : 
With every year the martyrs file anew 
In outcry, fury — in phrensy and in fear. 
The old, old Torturer shakes his beard and turns 
Insatiate every link with sinewy hands : 
Down goes the chain, and the old Torturer shakes 
His beard in sorrow — some ghosts arise and flee : 
Out goes the year, and some depart, no more 
Returning in their phrensy and their fear. 




19 



BEYOND. 



'T'HERE is a land. Its speech I know not, and 
* My eyes faintly discern its colors and 
Its clouds. What rolls between is sea or space 
Unknown. Yet over this daily I cast 
My vision, and delight uprises quick 
As distantly the forms of fettered hills 
To breaking seas disclose, return, and fade. 
Aside the hills of earth, its hollows and 
Its waves depart — roll o'er the paving clouds : 
I rest forgotten — strangely intent afar. 

There was a day I stood. Safely my feet 

Settled at ease : the far-off summits shone 

With radiance akin to grasping — I, 

Of old onlooking, felt abashed and near. 

A mystery with liberal permit grew 

Apparent : flaring the lights of certainty 

Discovered swiftly among bursting clouds. 

So standing came another. Not turning, we 

In silence, with our gaze unremoved 

From the clear hills, drew comfort — till desire 

Newly claimed hope. Long looking outward they 

Traced faintly and did fall : the seas dispelled : 

We turned together and remembered them. 



There is a land. We saw : our lips refuse 

Interpretation, but our eyes return 

With inward lids — walking unnoticed paths. 




OUTLOOK. 



INSTINCT with Immortality the Soul— 

^ Dashed from the revolving planet suddenly — 

Far from this spinning top of Time abroad — 

Trailing Imagination's endless waste — 

Sets on its journey to immenser spheres. 

Absolutely from the whirling Earth afar 

With rapider motion we depart at will. 

Beacons catch fire, blazing with knowledge new, 

Out thro' the fabulous mists as on we float, 

Like new created to creations come — 

Intent on purposes terribly far — 

Invaders out of date in other worlds. 

Diffused thro' desperate space on frightful wings, 

We follow essence, and Discovery 

Runs like a Spirit thro' occasional ways. 

This is escape. The World grown old and cold — 

Indisputably dead within its sphere — 

Draws to its awful grave that staggering life 

That on the great globe whirled its circle wild. 

Who travel hence fly doom and fly decay : 

There is a Promise, the Promise has its Plan — 

For this the Soul prepares its widespread eyes : 

Outward and outward, far — immensely far — 

For Life the Spirit bursts its frightened way — 

Shuddering because the World grows old and cold. 

21 




JUSTINE. 



TT seems to me that I have seen your face 

^ Earlier than now : have you been here before ? 

Are you mixed in the fantasy of the crime — 

Wholesome admixture of a little good 

With that tremendous sea of insolent 

Uprising volume of debauchery — 

Or are you come as secondary, now 

Printing the shore after the ravaging storm ? 

So pick me up as some most curious thing, 

Hurled on the margin of tremendous strife. 

Come from a ghastly conflict you cannot 

Possibly enter — but must watch results. 

This is most likely : in this white hospital 

You somewhat are at ease — but do you think 

You would adventure out to that supply 

Of torment, terror, and foul misery 

Whence come these relics you do prize so much ? 

Each on her shelf — a curiosity — 

Labelled with youth and age — virtue or sin : — 

These wreckers salvaged — but on yonder sea 

Thousands go down who do not strew the shore ! 

I have bethought me in this idle time — 

This season of suspense — half intellect — 

22 



JUSTINE. 23 

Have looked, perhaps, with an immortal eye 

On very much, and oftentimes on such 

As you — for now I can remember better 

You are accustomed in your coming. What 

In recompense have you for this pursuit ? 

Have you searched out the very devil who 

Forsook his hell to cast my body here ? 

I do not believe you 've found him, and will not 

So much as hope he ever will be found. 

Certainly you could not an instant come 

So closely in the circuit of such sin 

As gaze on him who ravished God and me — 

God only, and the lowest, deal with such. 

At any rate, what am I ? One somehow 

Most unaccountably has held so far 

Out from the filthy vortex of her life : 

One whose feet passed wonderfully o'er 

The home-paths of a gluttonous morass. 

At last she 's felled — or fell. Alack — they say — 

It is the foreign flowing blood that will 

Go wrong. Justine — Justine — savors something 

Askance for trepidation and dismay. 

Do you agree in this ? In that earthquake 

Of horror and dismembered agony 

I would have split the very world awide 

With one great cry — and not so very much 

As one still sound issued in protest forth 

From the complete unnaturalness of one. 

Do I talk well ? I passed some little time. 

At midnight, learning books would do me good. 

Why should I think of how the sun went down — 

Why should I reckon up my steps to where 

The precipice was and I lost consciousness } 



24 JUSTINE. 

O yes, the world is very full of birds — 

Dismembered, torn, I still am beautiful — 

Beautiful with the beauty of the world. 

Need mine have been a great, a terrible wrong, 

To call th' acquaintance of formality 

To an hypothesis of innocent shame — 

Make judgment falter, and, if possible. 

Lay some light burdens on such hearts as yours ? 

Lift you that burden somewhat — tell me now 

What I should do. Go warlike with the world. 

Bearing the gall of deathless enmity — 

Cast out of all its beauty and delight — 

Held for a menace in unclean disguise — 

And this because I was unfortunate ? 

Should I forgive ? A single, impotent thing — 

Imperceptible almost in the world's great eye — 

Scarce lisping in the Babel of its tongues — 

Set on and crushed by its aggressive feet 

For the resistance soft of being so — 

The yielding pleasure to voluptuous press — 

The blood that oiled its giant, lecherous arms ! 

You shudder at such talk — so far away 

Seems Hell and all its miseries red 

From your white life — you are secure ? Look on- 

See sitting on your knee some few years hence 

Is she who shall, in change of circumstance. 

Pay just my debt of cursed agony 

Into th' infernal compound of this world. 

It cannot be ? You are too pure ? No blood 

Comes from the wine-press as yours is, but sets 

Only from age and conservation forth, 

With that delightful essence flavored out 

So sweet itself demands protection ! 



JUSTINE. 25 

Look you — the dark, red-handed, riotous 

Villain who '11 speak in Hell's own tongue to her, 

Stammers to-day over the name of Christ — 

Prattles that word as any other task — 

'T will serve for any purpose by-and-by. 

I weary with this talk, but you will sit : 

You do not further me — you do not say 

Wherein shall open out the refuge wide 

When I shall gather this debauched thing, 

My body, back in all its loathsome strength 

That will not die. You falter, cannot still 

With all your thinking, coming, find the way. 

I tell you that this question 's all too much 

For such as sit and watch us in our sleep — 

Thinking they bring us easier rest and dreams. 

It is the day, the broad and glaring day, 

That you should temper to your hurt and sore. 

For we can sleep — too happily asleep — 

In separation slight of vacancy. 

You cannot tell me — cannot profit me ? 

Cannot this moment give me sound advice ? 

I am the tutor then — learn you of me : 

Go walk as I must in the drifting night — 

See if there 's really danger in the world : 

May be when I am strong I '11 come to sit 

About you with such questions as you bring. 





SUNSET. 



/^VER the deep, the shade, and the gloom, 
^-^ An island sits on a yellow sea ; 
r stand on the hill, and watch the doom 

Of souls as they pass to eternity. 
The chasm is wide and the island far ; 

The feet are feeble — the hills are high ; 
The rocks that jut on the ocean are 

Barriers the traveller passeth by. 
The eye is upward, but never a sound 

Sweeps from the isle on the yellow sea ; 
The souls pass on — stillness profound 

Beats to the tread of their long journey. 

golden isle ! O glittering sea ! 

So sweet to look on, — so far away, 
Why Cometh never the minstrelsy 

Of the ringing chords that surely play ? 

1 see the deep and purple dye, 

The sheen of riches, the golden ways ; 
I see the banners depending high — 

No echo one sweet sound betrays. 
I seem to go : — the thousands sweep 

In steady movement — footfall long — 
26 



SUNSET. 

Your beauty, yellow isle, you keep, 

But O for the comfort of your song ! 
Angels fly out to gild and dress 

The wide pure heaven in glorious way, 
Never, by chance, their lips express 

The rhythm of one celestial lay. 
I stand aside — the thousands go ; 

I look and listen — surely on high 
All ministrant orchestral flow 

Their marches and their melody. 
Not so, not so ; I stand and hear 

Myself who calls, and one who is, 
Like me, a listener for the clear. 

Sweet echo of your symphonies. 
We stand, and slowly, by degrees, 

Our brothers pass, and silence leaps 
Onward as they their steps decrease — 

Along yon shores the darkness creeps. 
We wait no longer ; we renew 

Our journey as the thousands go, 
Down — down — the deep, deep chasm thro' 

We plunge to gain the seas which flow 
So far in yellow glory round 

Your shores that calmly lie at ease. 
With long, long, stretching, sloping ground, 

Flooded in beauty — distance — peace. 



27 




UNCHANGED. 



T^HERE was a hill ; down in the heart was fire. 
^ Fierce ran the mountain's blood and broke in 
fury 
Out : hot hail and dreadful rush of flame 
Tore the tall monster's face and shook his form. 
Long streams of blinding rage, sorrow, and shame 
Ran from the summit sinking to his feet — 
The mountain stood in fury — lashed and wild. 

Time went and agony ran out at last ; 
Smoke and the sullen clouds of rancor blew 
Slowly aside — his face and form were changed. 
Long lines of sorrow, floods of the bitter past, 
Drew channels, seamed with their altering lines 
himself. 

Suns of the summer came, and wandering winds 
Begot a verdure, but the outline was 
What terrible storm had left it : — so it is. 



When the great blazonry of shaking trump 
Shall rattle in the hearts of hills, this one 
28 



UNCHANGED, 



29 



Will give an echo from its hollow self 
As fiery hands, shaping his breast, did form. 
Lightning and tempest — lips and a tongue of flame — 
Did give him speech — with unforgotten words. 
Long in the caverns rang his cries — so long 
His changeless ears are closed to other sounds — 
High o'er the world he hears not other tones. 




ABSENCE. 



/^NE stands upon the wayward sands, 
^-^ His hollow footing sways and shifts, 
Seaward his eyes — the world expands 

And settles as the sea-cloud drifts : 
Shaken, unstable, sad, profound, 

The seas and shore do swaying spread ; 
Drifting and lifting — ahead, aground, 

Falls the white spray — wild — whirling — dead. 

Stand thou in Memory's changing shades 

To yearn and anguish ; clear and high 
Rings out a voice — and sinks, evades 

An answer — unpitying passes by : 
Look out thine eyes — thy hands upraised — 

The drift comes in. O sway and turn ; 
Sick in the whirling, deceived and crazed 

For rest — for sight — yearn thou and yearn. 




30 




NEVER. 



SOMETIMES the Soul, misused and ill, 
Stands like a vulture o'er the plain, 
Marking the files from vale and hill, 
Watching the dying in their train : 
With eyes and heart for death alone, 

The cold destroyer unfurls and flings 
Expectant, as his victims groan, 
The shadow of his deadly wings. 

Ask of the dying who decline 

In anguish underneath their shade. 
Whether his sweeping circles fine 

Are lines the stars did use and made : 
Ask of the Soul, torn and defiled 

By fury, agony, and fear, 
With what sweet promises beguiled 

Wild eyes shall see cessation near. 




31 




EROS. 



OIN keeps not the World nor Wisdom, 

^ Love and Beauty bear the burden : 

If I sing them as I see them — 

If I listen to their voices, 

As they journey, and repeating 

Tell of what they say together — 

If I listen, and repeating 

Only answer as I hear it, 

If I answer them in chorus — 

Some from Wisdom's ranks arising, 

From the simple, virtuous either, 

Outstarting calls my word a crime ! 



Love begets all that 's begotten — 
Beauty is : — whatsoever lacketh 
Is her absence : always, always. 
Looks she farther on, and farther 
Love is striding, her attendant. 
Sin keeps not the World, nor Wisdom 
One is heavy, one is feeble, 
Young is Love and Beauty winning ; 
32 



EROS. 



33 



Thus I see them : when I say it, 
One from Wisdom's ranks arising, 
From the sinful, virtuous either, 
Thinking Pleasure drives the day-god- 
Believing Wisdom lights the stars — 
Upstarting calls my word a crime ! 




PLATO. 



OOME great Star, in the ages gone, grew and 
*^ Redeemed a mighty void with light and life 
Disuse and death, from greater spaces come. 
Fell on the world — its light and life were dumb. 
Still to my eyes the ardor of its glory 
Comes : where 's none the world I wheeling see. 

Long dead, O Plato, star, O generous sun ! 

Eastward, in ages gone, you rose and shed 

Beneficence and fulness : in the West 

I stand to-day, and over level plains 

See shining come your light and strong renown. 




34 




DISTANT. 



AFAR— afar— 
Love trims his boat and lights his star ; 
Clouds fly 'twixt me and Love's sweet home, 
Thro' these dear Love prepares to come. 

Trim brightly, Love, thy burning star, 
Dip deeply, Love, thy bending oar. 
Uncanny clouds and grewsome shade 
Have long thy gilded bark delayed. 

Old age ties with its locks of gray 
Cables to keep thy boat away ; 
Hate and malice, ugly spleen 
Dig deep the whirlpools us between. 

Cast off and sail, O bravely sail ! 
Float down the evening's amorous gale ; 
Come now, come now, before midnight 
Sets in for me, Love, steer aright. 



35 




THE LAST SONGS. 



J FILCHED from Fate and her embedded eyes 
* A brazen key, therewith unlocked the years — 
Saw on the pages of my folded scroll 
Many long lines with sadness interwrit : 
Glory of action — the swift wings of power — 
Fame of my deeds — tfie throbs of victory — 
All these had vanished ; in their stead I saw 
Solemn regrets crossing the devious ways 
With shadows — light from the darkness sifted. 

Then I upgathered every scented page 
Whereon bright names were signified and set ; 
Bound them with golden buckles and updid 
Most jealously the least illumined line — 
Sped with my volume back to dreadful Fate, 
Absorbing to herself the looks of men : 
" Behold ! wide scattered thro' my ways of grief 
Were blown these pages of unmeasured joy ; 
What wrong to thee that I have thinly bound 
These precious leaves inside of studded clasps, 
And left the others to thy will's control ? " 

" For that the Gods have fashioned for thy ken 
These images of distant, wayward thought, 
36 



THE LAST SONGS. 37 

And Mercy's self with constant hand has sown 
Some broadcast flowers — go, gather as thou wilt ; 
Sing then these songs — they shall be echoless." 

Folding the precious volume, I outran 
A thousand birds on wings of emerald, 
Dashed from the flowers low, clinging scents of 

morn. 
And moist with heavy dew, sought shaded courts. 
Beside a pool, quiet and comforting, 
I stretched the volume on my knees and read 
These transcripts from the shining tales of truth. 



What if yon large, peculiar Planet were 
Our home to be ? Regret, sorrow, and keen 
Dismay toll in our ears the passing of 
Our days — but hope, sweet impulse, and belief 
Rebuild their roadways for departing feet, 
And populate some aspect with ourselves. 
From this bright ball, rolling its seasons thro' 
We go : what hinders our elusive souls ? 
Ghostlike they pass — untenable depart — 
Floating ethereal in ethereal ways — 
Gone and received, perchance, in actual — 
Now unknown — conduct of palpable guides. 
Yon world of wonder — greater than ours — may be 
Such as would sweeten all the pain of this. 
Conceive, outlined in light — with fire-tipped wings — 
Voices grown hardy with incessant song — 
Ourselves ; — like birds high in a crystal sky — 
Unfettered arching — alighting — flashing — free. 



38 THE LAST SONGS. 

With folded wings — idle in easy paths — 
Think of the converse new, drawn aptly from 
Discovered maxims of The Great Design. 
Beyond, above, high, and absorbing all 
Is Love — the prize delayed in this low world. 
There, unashamed, shall high-pitched voices call 
Her language — with its purified, sweet tongue — 
In yonder lustrous World — our home may be. 
***** -)t 

There is a power in immaterial things : — 
Kingdoms arise upon chimeras ; dawn 
Insensibly before the day displayed 
And widening-trees torn in a sightless wind — 
Are symbols ; but more unembodied still 
Sweep current in the World impalpably 
The feuds and forces of The Great Design. 
Strange, strange and sweet, to sit at eventide, 
When floods of light, receding from our shores. 
Ebb outward, flowing o'er the horizon's rim ; 
To sit with circumambient soft spell 
And influence of the absent in the air. 
Clearly th' accustomed way — doubt or reward — 
Of lips well known stand in their accent by, 
And others, of a speech unusual. 
Do supplement, as the poised World revolves 
In silence, an undertone — concurring low. 
Drawn from the combination gentle deeds 
Outline their figures to our wayward eyes ; 
Glory seems possible, and to renounce 
Our footing for the flight of wings — but true. 
* * * * * * 

There is a Voice. — Who believes unbounded space 
Is vacant ? — Sounding without, striking on ears 



THE LAST SONGS. 39 

Fitted to hear, pulsating constant goes 

The crying of a Mighty Tongue, and we 

Shake sensitive sometimes in its refrain ; 

It cries, and we would follow ; who has not 

Stood still occasional with lifted eyes, 

And ears intent ? Crying in concert rings 

The echo of ourselves swift vibrating 

Within, trembling on verge of outburst near, 

Breaking abroad with rattle, and return. 

When The Great Tongue shall speak, we, diligent, 

Shall hasten out, fulfilling its commands. 

O listen : bend ye long, attentive ears, 

Catching and striving for forerunning tones ! 

Seek thro' the woods and hills of lengthened years, 

For echoes gathered in the bygone times. 

That ye may know the speaking of The Tongue ! 

When on the stillness comes its startling call. 

Fly to the mandate and return no more — 

Watchers and waiters for its Sound as now. 



There always will be some, oblivious, who 
Disuse the common current of the world, 
And sweep, or stay, as necessary seems 
To purpose higher and unusual use ; 
Indifferent in the stream such harbored are 
Likely miscalled — or, heading onward, as 
Thoughtless acquire the customary curse. 
Contemn : the many going at a pace 
Discern at once : what needs another eye ? 
Where none will listen, and where none look out. 
Stand ye. No page is blank ; from every hill 
Knowledge is stretched ; unsentinelled are peaks — 



40 THE LAST SONGS. 

Untenanted the quiet com})ass of 
Delightful shores where learning lies afresh. 
Interpreters, go singly out : forgive — excuse 
Contention and the active raillery 
Awaiting on the struggle and the loss. 
Nearing to distant things shall such arrive 
Acquainted — on swift revolutions of 
More rapid worlds their steps are used and true. 
* * * * * -;^- 

Beauty is bait for Desolation — lo 
Darkness treads on with cloven feet, the fields 
Gloriously outlaid : Fire and the forms of Death 
Settle with roaring over all that 's fair. 
Destruction reigns : hills that arose as swell 
Breasts of the beautiful, are aspects more 
Immediate, only, of a vast despair — 
Forsaken lies the land — none walk therein. 

Love is a-chill : the long, unsettled plain 

Wails with its winds ; Love garbs herself and 

goes — 
Sorrow, arising in her tearful eyes, 
Runs with its misty rivers o'er the land : 
With little knowledge Love looks out, but pours 
Constant her tenderness over decay : 
Athirst — athirst — the plain revives, and spring 
Life and remembrance mingled in fine return. 

****** 

We separate are sent — sped flying out : 
The World lies at our vantage : we return 
With evidence upon our tongues and speak. 
Few hear, and none believe : we saw awrong. 



THE LAST SONGS. 4 1 

Deep on the impress of our earnest souls 

Still shine the visions — again we see and speak. 

Like to a light, shining afar at sea — 

Fitfully anxious in the distance vast — 

In the dark world rises an answering gleam, 

Love's timorous, low beacon ; and Renown, 

Idly afloat, sails to the wakeful star. 

Then Glory and her wide, exultant train 

Effulgent gather, as the morning breaks. 

But we, with watching thro' the lonesome night. 

Cannot forget the way Love looks and shines, 

'k ^ ^ ^ H: % 

These things I read with others. The sweet book, 
Blotting my tears, was ended, and I read 
Ever again, while light there was, the tales. 
Night coming, Fate outstretched her hand and took 
My volume back ; I followed with my voice — 
^' For me too late — O Love I know thy ways ! " 




RUSH ON, RUSH ON WITH HASTY FEET. 



OUSH on, rush on with hasty feet 






Ye merry hours ; 



Delay not till my love I meet, 

And then go slow, and long, and sweet, 

Let happy flowers 
Entice your steps, delay, delay. 
Then go not from my heart, O day 

Delay. 

O happy sun I see her by 

Stand still for me ; 
O keep your glow upon the grass. 
And let the shade neglect to pass, 

While wondering why 
The owl holds fast upon his tree, 
Thou golden day so wait for me. 

Delay. 



42 



COMPARISON. 



A BLAZE within the forest — the wild beast at 
'**' its bone — 
The anger of the rushing waves twirling a heavy 

stone — 
A tempest in the sidelong spars — mid-day burning 

the plain — 
This is the love within my heart — within my life 

the pain. 

Sweet islands set on gilded seas — the Pleiads in the 
sky — 

The mountain mists from pines and firs dimming 
the daylight's eye — 

At eve the bells of straggling herds — Fairies laugh- 
ing on a lake — 

This is the love would come with her — I dream of 
for her sake. 



43 



v^f 




WAITING. 



JV A Y lips are singing — my soul is sad : 

^ '^ *■ Sing on — sing on — my lips shall cease 

The far, far future's voices glad 

Are anthems of such souls at peace. 
O long, so long, my hours and life — 

I know but Time as mortals know — 
They say 't is soon — they say the strife 

Should shorten years — O heart is 't so ? 
They say my steps are hard because 

The hills I climb look out so far ; 
O Lord of Heaven, they say Thy laws 

To us, untaught, stupendous are. 

soul and life — O distance, death — 
To-day is keen — to-morrow never : 

1 call and call — they say my breath 

Shall pass — the meed remain forever. 
I know but time as mortals know ; 

Alas, I know such pain and fear ; 
Joy is the promise, the payment woe. 

Yonder the guerdon — the price is here. 
The hills I climb look out so far — 

O Lord of Heaven look down and sign ; 
If these, my ways, so perilous are. 

Give me the sight and sound of Thine ! 
44 




.y^ 



DESIRE. 

A PAIN — a vacancy — a want — 
■**■ A need that rises up to dare — 
A heart that wails, and lips that pant — 

A soul that listens to despair ; 
Eyes that look long and never see — 

Ears that desire and soundless wait— 
A hope that turns from things to be — 

A rebel — scaffolded by Fate. 

An Angel waits, and far — so far — 

Glory begirts her raiment's hem ; 
Blindly between flash brands of war — 

If I shall go it is thro' them : 
Desire — desire — so great, so strong, 

I must — I will — stand at her side ; 
I seek no guides in right or wrong — 

My shackles open — torn — defied ! 

Before — before — I leap and flee ; 

Ahead — ahead 's the only fray, 
Aside your swords I never see. 

Their danger 's lost — I 'm far away ! 
Desire — desire — so wild, so new — 

O action — battle — struggle — storm — 
If Hope is lost the conflict thro' 

Beside stalks Glory's giant form. 
45 




ACHIEVEMENT. 



"CAR off is death, and far the living after : 

■'' Ourselves do fail — wearied does judgment wait 

Unspoken : we likewise cease — silently stand. 

Impossible to vanquish run anew 

The fiery goads of purpose and desire : 

Past vision, apprehension, indistinct. 

Ethereal, but obstinate of life. 

Resume and vanish aspect — achievement — plan. 

Far off is death, and far the living after : 
Failure forgetting stirs in our hearts intent : 
Mortality and time timid demand 
Succor from some : with anxious eyes we search 
Another's secret, and — gathering impulse — go. 

'T is one : the doer, he who stays, are one : 
Desire and impulse rest a-swing the deed : 
What holds the action knows the balance sways 
Even betwixt the wisher and the way. 



46 




THE JOURNEY. 



O PEED ! Speed ! The wheels fly fast, and far 
^ Run various ways — 
The guides depart and dash : 

Fly hence — sweet tho' these waters are 
Yonder, afar, gold breakers rise arrd flash : 

Gently these hills decline — beyond in amethyst 
blue 
Lie the long slopes of verdure, tangled, fine : 

Thickly these stars of heaven The Giver threw — 
Yonder, O yonder, runs new work — a new design. 
Speed ! Speed ! arise and half-way meet 

The day undone, bear back the golden flood : 
Pour, largely pour, the spoils of his defeat 

Over assemblies where thou dar'st intrude. 
Onward and onward speed ! the hurrying airs 

Divide and tremble with the wings and eyes 
Of Spirit — each Spirit strives, and wears 

Over his face the fight — upon his face the prize. 
Fly — fly — delay, nor dally not, nor furl 

The wings of action, neither decline nor stay. 
Rush out — rush out — desire, hope, conquest whirl 

Outward and onward — rise up — away ! away ! 



47 




REDEEMED. 



T ISTEN : in every circuit sails 
^ Some planet of superior path ; 
Glory on glory's lord entails 

Magnificence the ruler hath : — 
Far into darkness — high — remote — 

Swings out a central sun, and he 
Unscathed thro' mystery will float 

On the wild wings of bravery. 

Black are the spaces — dread — unswept- 

But that this king of suns did pass ; 
Round idler lights disuse had crept, 

On weaker flames the shadows mass ; 
The fearful fade and fail, but he, 

Conscious and daring, flies afar. 
Breasting with power uncertainty — 

Thro' nothingness a searching star. 

Listen : Strange spirit may redeem 
An errant sun from waywardness ; 

The ample chords of Heavenly theme 
Unusual melodies express : 
48 



REDEEMED. 49 

High in the circuit of desire 

Runs intricate reward and ill — 
The widening circle's bounds require 

Movements adapted to their will. 

We, as we sweep, ascending high, 

Resolving pinnacles descried 
Shall be the steps we journey by 

For outlook upon circles wide — 
We, as we heighten distantly, 

Dissuade the grosser doom and meed, 
Redeemed from simpler monarchy 

Conception's sceptre reigns instead. 





RETURN. 



QAY not I give — say not my Soul, 
^ Ambassador of Eastern ways, 
Confers — that grandly journeys roll, 

And caravans enriched, ablaze, 
Continue from my citadel ; 

And storehouse coffers, to descend 
The sweet paths trodden long and well, 

In home of thine having an end. 

O upward, upward, from thyself 

Rises a rhyme so delicate. 
It charms the trains of loaded wealth, 

And anxious steeds disdain to wait. 
Their emissaries fast undo 

The halters of their homeward stay ; 
Swiftly descends each happy crew 

Adown Love's nimble-footed way. 

Bounding, departing, eager, free. 

Rush gladly out the squires and steeds. 
Lightly the charger goes — than he 

More lightly still the one who leads ; 
No burden bends, no cruel freight 

Hampers with hardship's penalty. 
These served a lord of high estate — 

But seek a sovereign still more free. 
50 




THE WOMEN. 



\1 7HY one, openly with a shining gem, 

' ' Walks with the other, searching for a loss, 
A hopeless loss and old, with thieves a-near. 
Trading responsibility and crime, — 
Why one should vainly go, I watching, asked. 
She with the jewxl — for the other's eyes 
Continually searching, wavering fell, 
Looked with much answer and a low reply : 
'' My brother took the jewel from her breast." 




51 




REVIVAL. 



'X'HRO' Chaos and her dark, rebellious crimes 
^ Goes Memory a-stir — with eyes awake : 
Low in her hands wavers a trembling flame 
Left by the Ravisher, and flickering since. 
Thro' the wild crimson tide of love revived 
She journeys to that distant, fabulous day. 
Love wore no cloak of passion, and herself 
Stood purer than her garments — undisguised. 
Warm in her breath the flame revives and springs 
As nearer Memory comes to that long time. 
Some wandering farther, and with heart aglow 
She shall return — guiding a glorious light. 
High in her hands over the wondering world 
Shall that white flame in marvellous beauty burn, 
Till all the red reflections of desire — 
The taint of crime — rapine of deadly eyes — 
The desperate glut of passion and her wants — 
Shall from departing Night habiliments 
Of secrecy obtain and with her go. 
Fierce in the fury of a passionate dawn 
The dark morass shines like a summer sea ; 
But in high noon lie all uncovered things ; — 
So in the spreading circuit of that light 
Shall souls emerge — walking allotted ways — 
Its thin, discorporate fusion of delight 
Bears up the footing of their noiseless feet. 
52 




BELIEF. 



O ASHFULLY came the Damsel of the Night, 
^ Blushing, because upon the Day too soon 
She tripped ; shaking her midnight locks low 

down — 
Modestly veiling so her starry eyes. 
Trailing her shadowy robes she shunned approach, 
But passing onward from the twilight shade, 
Another, with majestic, even feet. 
Walked solitary. Great, unveiled, discreet. 
Sublime in mouth, with curious, destined eyes — 
Whose look was increase, but whose color none 
Could see, because some far-off things drew out 
So much of light — earnest, refined, noting 
Not me, she passed. Longing arose within : 
Because she surely went I believed beyond 
Was something wonderful. I turned — but Night 
Coyly threw out her robe — its border swept 
My forehead daintily — and soon I slept. 




53 



SLAVERY. 



A ND for her terrible eyes were set so wise — 
^*- Such spread of passion on her steadfast face- 
So much immovable her needless lips 
In telling aught unto her bondsman — me — 
And for in that I had been heretofore 
Myself omnipotent, I served the more. 
It is a desperate thing to be enslaved 
In public ignominy ; walk and wait 
Mesmeric to contemptuous idleness 
Of ordering ; but my impotent feet set out — 
Throughout the scandal and the hissing tongues- 
The gibes of knots, and single sidelong eyes — 
On any purport invented in her heart. 
If I had been transferred to some new sphere — 
Been taken in the helplessness of death — 
And so submitted in an unknown realm 
Under the abject dominion of a thing 
Beautiful, novel, passionate, and powerful — 
Without the possibility of revolt — 
One lone one of my kind in all that sphere — 
I could have served her no more totally. 
It would have been relief to be a slave 
'Lone in some other world — the only one — 
'T would be th' excuse of curiosity, 
And I be pardoned an unusual thing. 
But here, with other men, aged and young, 
54 



SLA VER V. 55 

With other women in wide-eyed surprise, 

With all th' accustomed, terrible by-words, 

Was like the horror of acquainted ghosts. 

If I did sleep it was because her eyes 

Drew scornful off and I was chilled to sleep : 

My dreams were torture, for I feared to be 

Absent her beckoning, and waked as one 

Who hurries on unstable footing forth 

Over the toilsome journey brought him down. 

To die was uninviting, for my Soul 

It was that served her — that would, itself, return : — 

My body was a shield between my Soul 

And her. If it were cast away my Soul 

Would writhe in open, endless agony. 

Nor did I think of any sort release — 

She was so beautiful : sometimes myself 

Rung with delighted laughter, for I was 

So much her own I could not be put off. 

I served and serve : I do not justly know 

Whether she is the same to-day, because 

I have not for these many years dared look 

Into her face. What she desires I do, 

Nor ever need encounter those fierce eyes. 

It may be I am changed, but if it be 

There are no means for me to know^ it, for 

I will not look on other face than hers — 

And that is all impossible for years. 



PREDESTINATION. 



/^N prosperous instant came a Messenger — 
^^ Who was an Influence, or Thought, or Sight- 
To draw the veil of hampering consequence 
And serious uncertainties of form 
Aside, bidding existence far removed 
Display its possibilities and shape, 
And force the circumstance wherein we sat 
Vacate its action of reality. 
Into the case of being hastily 
Arose myself in part improbable, 
Joined with like issues in another. Which, 
As I was in fervid expectancy — 
Was molten in the outlook for delight — 
Worked in the crucible of curious years 
And therefore fitted for the stamp of Fate — 
Wears everlasting current in my mind. 




56 




Q^ 



THE KISS. 



O HALL I at parting touch thy lips — shall we 

^ Consider Time as vacant and decoy 

From the slow, inconsiderate afterwards 

Its heedless ecstasy and ripe delay ? 

No words are contrary, but shadows move 

With unkind semblances between ourselves. 

Which in the light will fail : and shall we now 

Burn up the gloom with fury counterpart ? 

Lo ! yonder is the light but never flame — 

And we are fearful ; and so further on 

And on Love travels with her lips untouched. 



57 




QUESTION. 



r^OWN the long avenues — thro' sightless ways- 
-"-^ Lost in a distance indescribable — 
Circuits where swing the rampant stars and spheres- 
Beyond belief — gazing impossibly 
On things remote — wide, weird, and wonderful, 
I look — whirled on a darkened ball. 
Why stand my feet on ruin overgrown 
With evil slime, and why poured out abroad 
Rolls from the underworld her massed despair ? 
Thither in scattered glory, stretched so far. 
Eternity shall travel without stop ; 
Speed the white worlds in radiant roundelay 
Of motion musical and purpose mild. 
Grinding repulsive o'er her granite way 
Goes Earth, laborious round her far-set Sun ; 
Her terrible revolutions of dismay 
Earning with agony, enclosed in clouds. 
The populace of that tremendous plain 
I scan. Each white, desirable sphere 
Of those that are widespread in hollow space — 
Patching the gloomiest horizon out 
Where worlds and millions people airs unknown- 
Is as a star — bright to the blotted Earth. 
Lonely, adverse, sullen, unpolished, rude, 
Standing a fragment, jarring the wheels of Fate, 
5« 



QUESTION, 59 

Housed in a home of doubt and far delay, 
O'er those expecting globes my vision goes. 
The ready worlds remain and I go whither ? 
Some on those massy spheres shall rise to meet 
My entering Soul, speaking in kindred tongue. 
Saying securely — Thou hast come with us ! 





ATTAINMENT. 



OUT all the world is wearied with unrest : 
■^ Her tortured men arise and walk abroad 
The troubled Earth — with messages, but silent. 
Silence and speech incomprehensibly 
Are devastation and terrible hurt 
Of failure as they struggle and they go. 
In the sad interchange occasional 
Arrests befall unhappy wanderers ; 
And some in one way cease, some in another. 
I was a vexed and sad, disrupted Soul, 
Incessantly and ever in detail 
Of horrid search and stubborn agony. 
Traversing avenues and tangled ways. 
Weary with the wide circuits of despair 
I sifted all determinations out, 
But one refused — Love and its soul of Life. 
Before this Phantom I sat down to die — 
For it remained in deadly enmity. 
And I forgot all others in its issue. 
There are unnumbered phalanxes and forms 
Of agony, and every kind dismay, 
And danger, and a wantonness of hurt, 
And blasphemy most singular of woe. 
And an exhausted patience all unknown, 
60 



ATTAINMENT. 6 1 

Serve as temptations and as ministers 

To such as I — before this Phantom fixed. 

But every other energy and shape 

Had vanished as I wished, and this alone 

Remained because of answer on her lips — 

Which I, seeing within, sat down before. 

Men thought me dead, but still I staid as stone — 

Which has, itself, but one attraction. 

No active agony in time beset 

My vacancy, because so evident 

The desperate forgetfulness of things 

Was on my heart ; and in my eyes alone 

The only image was impossible Life — 

For soul and body are the same in Love. 

When I had passed sensation and could know 

Love's thoughts as words and words as nothingness, 

And neither for the least essential thing, 

She spake the first time in forgotten years : 

" Thou art passed out except this great desire ; 

Therefore naught hinders thee to join with me — 

Seize thou desire and find itself alive." 



APPARITION. 



O O in my exultation I forgot 
^ Unnecessary forms, and looking back 
Felt that most fearful Apparition ever 
Was instinct with habiliments and sight. 
The Soul of Life and Its Appearance was 
To me a possible thing — not creed nor belief. 
Myself and all that moved I saw anew : 
Evil was passive, and the grandeur moved 
Of certain acquisition to the good 
Like a strong light, breaking between defiles. 
My fellow-man was dreadful nevermore 
In form nor action, but appeared as one 
Standing unnecessarily in sight — 
Because of custom — which would vanish soon. 
Myself was an identity unhoused 
From obscuration of an idle use 
Grown formal, and in governance of laws 
More absolute because uncharactered. 
Which was a dreadful absolution — all : 
Having the trade of knowledge for belief : — 
Binding myself in the unspeakable course 
Of universal action and advance. 
But in the liberation awe was saved 
From a destruction too omnipotent 
Because I did become part of another — 
Which broke the dreadful disembodiment : 
But Life hereafter was an endless thing. 
62 




APPLICATION. 



A ND by a Light so awful interchange 
■**• All ordinary things and usual deeds : 
The long, unstinted end of every thing 
Comes into view, passing the daily turns. 
In haste and hurry roll on thronging years, 
And we, with speedier consequence, alight 
Over the utmost century and see 
Action and form merge into a desire — 
Which clothes itself as such desires appear. 




63 




TRANSFER. 



T IKEWISE — guests in an adequate circum- 

^ stance — 

Embodied in sufficient harmony 

Of knowledge and of custom — operate 

In their own usual spheres the dead of Earth — 

Safely related to surrounding needs. 

But as they go, we, yearning in dismay 

That their accomplished courses circle out. 

Seek also for the journey as each one, 

With an unspoken intent, sets abroad. 

They also in their distant memories. 

Or some immediate impulse governing, 

Send back reflections for us : we between 

Their sweet desires and our ascendencies 

Transfer in gradual change ourselves — and go. 




64 



ACQUISITION. 



RAPID in action— of enlightened force — 
A palpitating summons of delight — 
Virtuous with energy and feeling will — 
Most wonderfully real and exact 
Is apprehension — acquisition — the 
Attainment of informal spectacles. 
Gently distended from inception of 
This knowledge, with irradiation soft, 
Goes the adjustment of all blending things. 
Form may not conquer Spirit, but is made 
Daily unequal as the strife goes on : 
Still Doubt feeds Time in silence — public — stern- 
And Increase goes unmeasured and unknown. 



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65 



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CONTACT. 



T^H' accumulated stores of deed decay : 
* Actions and forms, select accomplices 
Of an Occult Design, grow indistinct. 
To see material things and thence to draw 
Expression, is a passionate delight, 
For Beauty strikes into the Soul like fire : 
But we are nearer, and diviner come 
With an immediate instinct on Design. 
Such is creation in us ; whence we give 
Bounty more subtle to the things we see 
Than in them grows — repeat them and say more. 
Down to the heart goes Love and draws thereout 
An unshaped Fancy of perpetual joy : 
Not time, nor limitation, nor real 
Apparentness of any daily thing 
Expresses it ; but all the indistinct 
Glorious and fruitful haze of hope and belief 
Whirl in a combination most redeemed 
From mortal fear and interruption of 
Possible failure or disastrous end. 
There is no form to light — itself becomes 
What it is hampered by : so Love expands 
In all the beauty of an endless thing — 
Outstretching from the heart unformed — unnamed 
Impossible of loss, for contact is 
Consolidation, and opposing Shape 
Has vanished— for no needless thing remains. 
66 



ASSEMBLAGE. 



T^HERE is a unity in Love : because 
^ Such was the advent when the Soul was set 
Outward in apparentness as such, 
Knowing that this was its identity. 
Soul 's indivisible, but Shape becomes 
Simply in service to perpetual chance : 
Which terrible issue was when Evil took 
Its passionate advantage to destroy 
Sweet, gentle Love's unknown accompaniment. 
Long revolutions of harsh servitude 
That captive went, and is returning back. 
Into a thousand desperate Forms compelled 
Love forgets all — returning single-eyed. 
Back thro' corporeal vicissitudes 
Of agony and fury — shape and crime — 
Assembling come our Souls ; and Love ahead, 
In glorious leadership, exulting sings 
The possibility of an exact 
And perfect rendering into herself. 
All the old formal things of Crime depart ; 
Desire, and dark pollution, and sorrows 
Of Shape sink down — fall from th' unmixed Soul. 
Led by the lost Instructress of the Heart 
Reality advances and becomes 
A thing of influence and subtle state. 
Not any more demanding time and sight. 
67 



REALIZATION. 



TN all the outspread plains of afterwards 

■■■ Love is a gainer, and his day of Time, 

However sweet, fades in a flying dawn. 

For Man is Space and Woman Light ; and they, 

In adaptation of simplicity. 

Newly revealed do possibly combine. 

Which formless glory sheds upon to-day's 

Eager advance beatitude and flight. 

Sweet Influence, securely intrenched 

With power to work her deeds, looks out and sees 

Nearly th' approaching end : calling aloud 

All sidelong avenues she presses on — 

In gazing over sees not things beside. 




68 



EXPRESSION. 



"\1 /E sometimes see : we feel and blindly hid 
' ^ Lie in ourselves the evidence and proof. 
Tho' sullen in their utterance, yet to us 
Such are sufficient ; but there comes demand 
For guarantee, and we attempt display. 
Transmission, interchange, and mighty things 
In rude translation issue out, but still 
It is impossible to speak as see — 
And as we speak the vision disappears. 
Sounds of the tongue disturb, and vacant ears 
Are not the same as open, credulous eyes. 
Yet into speech pure beauty is distilled 
And we in silence turn — acquiring more. 




69 



FUTURITY. 



"Xl 70MAN came after man and for a cause : 

' ' He is passivity — recipient — 
And citadel to her incoming Soul 
Gently in guidance, seeking to enhance 
Its adequate brightness into Shape and Form. 
His is the Form — seeing herself a Soul 
Is safety to her essence, and delight 
Of feature is forgotten as he looks. 
Startled, upon her Spirit entering in. 
The Light is its own guide whither to go : 
Shape cannot seize it — but it lightens Shape : 
And she is as a flame — burning apart 
Only in air — unless she enters in : 
Set in her mastery, and being there 
Inherited entering another Shape. 
Woman is Light — seeing herself as she 
Appears in Man — without him all the void 
Of unshapen darkness swallows up herself. 
Entered there 's never dissolution, nor 
Dismemberment, nor ever breakage more. 
Nor any other than a single thing 
Surviving from the summit's stop of Time 
That goes into another reckoning. 



70 




SPEECH. 



T T E sees — his brother not : for this descends 
^ ''■ Into his hands the fearful weight of Speech. 
Crushed by the burden thro* some harrowing days 
Goes heavily his Soul — cloaking the weight. 
Implacable the Powers pile on their gifts 
Of knowledge — vision — prophecy and use. 
Bent and disfigured thro' the jeering crowd 
Treads the o'erladen, incapable of ease. 
Despair bursts from his tongue, with arms outspread 
More to the Powers than unto men he calls 
Such words as the long burden made him know. 
How is the issue — how th' affrighted cry ? 
Cold Failure with her leaden eyes, and hands 
Moist with the breath of those she chills, attends. 
Into her face needs go a passionate cry — 
Before her visage needs a kindling fire — 
Drowning her monotone tremendous tongues 
Must ring in daring and in agony. 
To these she yields — muffling her sunken head 
The mantle of defeat she draws and goes. 



Of burden light, gently, O wearied tongue 
Speak to the waters of a sinking sea : 
71 



^2 



SPEECH. 



Lightly the winds, chained to accustomed ways, 
Bear out the Singer's sombre, evening words. 
Within himself, passing in bright review. 
Go the battalions of a wondrous fray — 
Beauty and power — joy, grandeur, and delight 
Reward his eyes, and with his words at will 
Abroad the world he sends their journeying songs. 
Not all — still rooted in unyielding, dumb 
Impossible speech lie things of care and grief. 




RELEASE. 



I SAW by daily suns a giant Bird 
Stand on a minaret by the vacant sea. 
On every eastern sky his brooding form, 
Defined in darkness, rose against the light. 
Day grew in heat, and, turning with the sun, 
Th' unlidded eyes gathered unconscious fire. 
Eve fell : — red in the sun's retreat, unclosed. 
His glaring orbs gazed o'er the weltering seas. 
I marvelled : — what mighty chains hung on his 

wings — 
High o'er the wondering world what power unknown 
Detained his flight ? In fierce, uncovered day 
He stood, and lonely in the night, excelled 
With patience all the heavenly lamps and stars. 
Time passed — he stood. I marvelled not — forgot 
His going possible — myself grew old. 
I, too, gazed on the going sun and dreamed 
Of entering some evening sweet with him 
The ready gates that stood so welcome — wide. 
So looking from the air commotion fell — 
Unusual a shade o'erspread, and as 
The sun touched on the Ocean's rim, this Bird 
Displayed his mighty sails and journey took — 
Left vacant more the seas and minaret. 



73 



THE VOICE. 



HTHERE is a dreadful distance can be dreamed 
^ Remote in awe — glorious in court and spire, 
With messengers of beauty, and details 
Of harmony to this far world unknown. 
Served by the countless syndicate of light 
There is a Ruler — housed with power immense, 
Whose speech is Influence — whose works are Laws. 
Sped from the fashion of His forming hands 
Rolled down th' abysmal plain a glittering sphere — 
And planets swinging. Pulsating in the globe 
For ages rests an answering desire 
Returning to the fashion of His hands. 
Over the dreadful distance flies a-wing 
Creation with her creatures — circling swift, 
All on the darting planets throb betimes 
To the long tension of an ancient day 
The mighty Word blew far this starry cloud. 
Whirled in an undismayed return we go 
In light and darkness nearer, while a-stir 
Runs the revival thro' a World's desire. 
Spirit and Space, Material and Soul 
Quiver with waiting — but silent still afar 
Is hushed the dreadful welcome of The Voice. 
Between the long remoteness of designs 
We stand unknowing, but our ears incline 
Perchance, affrighted to the Voice that comes. 
74 






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